From Our Pages: “Making Friends with Midge,” on your best friend and Barbie’s. By Susann Cokal.

Besides being a literary critic, novelist, teacher, and Broad Street‘s editorial director, Susann Cokal is a lifelong scholar of all things Barbie, with several pieces published on the subject. In this essay, Cokal explores what it means to be a best friend through the medium of Midge. Barbie’s best friend was invented to be a supportive character, but she’s had an interesting life of her own—including pregnancy and childbirth.

“Making Friends with Midge” originally appeared in the first, out-of-print issue of Broad Street. It received a Special Mention in the 2015 Pushcart Prizes. It appears here for the first time specially formatted for online reading.